Edwin Chadwick on the Advantages of New Factory Designs, 1842
(Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890), the Benthamite Poor Law Administrator and public
health reformer, describes the advantages to the workers of new factory designs in his
famous Sanitary Report. Edwin Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Labouring Population and on the Means of its Improvement, 1842, pp. 240-44; in J. T.
Ward, ed., The Factory System, Vol. I, Birth and Growth (New York: Barnes & Noble,
1970), pp. 182-85.)
On my return from Glasgow, I proceeded to visit and examine the cotton manufactory
and machine-making works erected and carried on under the directions of Mr. James
Smith, of Deanston, near Stirling, the inventor of the subsoil plough....
The principle of the improvement of places of work, which constituted the chief
object of attention at Deanston, was the erection of manufactories in one large flat or
ground floor, instead of story piled upon story as in the old mode.
Mr. Smith had constructed a new department of the cotton mill in one room or
flat, which covered about half an acre of ground. The roof was composed of groined
arches in divisional squares of 33 feet 6 inches, supported on cast-iron columns, which
were hollow, and through which the drainage of the roof was effected....
The height of this large room was 12 feet from the floor to the spring of the
arches, and six feet rise, giving a height to the room in which the operatives were
engaged of 18 feet. The height of the ordinary rooms in which the workpeople in
manufactories are engaged is not more than from 9 to 11 feet. This restricted space arises
from various points of economy (now considered to be mistaken) in the old modes of
constructing manufactories, which were first erected in towns where land was dear, and
in times when the immediate economy of capital was of more pressing importance. The
adverse consequences to the operatives are the restriction of space for air; that the heat
and effluvia of the lower rooms are communicated to the rooms above; and that the
difficulty of ventilating them is exceedingly great, especially in the wide rooms, where it
is found to be practically extremely difficult to get a current of fresh air to pass through
the centre. The like difficulties have been heretofore experienced in respect to the
ventilation of large ships. There is also in the mills of the old construction the additional
fatigue of ascending and descending to the higher rooms, and carrying material. To avoid
this, in some instances, machinery is resorted to.
The ventilation through the side windows of large rooms is generally found to be
imperfect and inconvenient in many of the processes, and annoying to the workpeople
from the influx of the air in strong currents. The arrangements for ventilation through the
roof of this room appeared to be highly advantageous. The light was brought in from
above, through openings eight feet in diameter at the top of each groin, surmounted by
domes or cones of glass, at the apex of which there were openings of about 16 inches in
diameter, with covers that could be opened or shut at pleasure, to admit of ventilation.
The better distribution of the light for the work from these openings was one advantage
they appeared to possess over the ordinary mode of getting light from side windows.
The chief arrangements from below for ventilation were made by tunnels 10 feet
distance from each other, carried across and underneath the floor of the building, and
terminating in the open air on either side. The covers of these tunnels were perforated
with holes of about an inch in diameter and 12 inches apart, disposed through the floor so
as to occasion a wide and uniform distribution of fresh air throughout the whole building,
on the same principle as that adopted for the admission of fresh air through the floor of
the House of Commons. In winter time the fresh air admitted was warmed on the same
principle, by pipes of hot water, to prevent the inconvenience of the admission of
currents of cold air. The whole building was, from its size and arrangements, kept at a
steady temperature, and appeared to be less susceptible than other buildings to
atmospheric influence. The shaftings for the conveyance of the power were carried
through the tunnels, and straps or belts from the shafts rise through the cover of the
tunnels, and, by their motion, aid in promoting the circulation of the air. The possibility
of fatal accidents from the persons being caught by the straps an4 wound round the
shafts, was by this arrangement entirely prevented. The tunnelling under this arrangement
constituted a boxing off of the whole of the shafting. Another advantage from the
removal of the driving-straps from above was that the view over the whole room was
entirely unimpeded.
Another structural improvement was in the use of a thin flooring of wood over the
solid base of stone floors. The floor so arranged affords the solidity of the stone floor,
and inconsiderable danger of combustion, whilst the advantages of the wooden surface to
the workers were a diminution of swelled ankles and rheumatic affections of the joints,
often produced by working bare-footed on stone floors.
There were no entries made from which I could obtain for comparison an account
of the amount of sickness experienced by the workpeople in this new room, but it was
obvious that the improvement must be considerable, and it was attested by the rosy and
fresh countenances of the females and of the workpeople generally. A considerable
improvement was manifest in the health of those workpeople who had previously worked
in the older and less spacious rooms.
... The chief advantages of the improved arrangements of the places of work were,
on the side of the workpeople, improved health; security for females and for the young
against the dangers of fatal accidents, and less fatigue in the execution of the same
amount of work. But beyond these the arrangement of the work in one room had moral
advantages of high value. The bad manners and immoralities complained of as attendant
on assemblages of workpeople of both sexes in manufactories, generally occur, as may
be expected, in small rooms and places where few are employed, and that are secluded
from superior inspection and from common observation. But whilst employed in this one
large room, the young are under the inspection of the old; the children are in many
instances under the inspection of parents, and all under the observation of the whole body
of workers, and under the inspection of the employer. It was observed that the moral
condition of the females in this room stood comparatively high. It would scarcely be
practicable to discriminate the moral effects arising from one cause where several are in
operation; but it was stated by ministers that there were fewer cases of illegitimacy and
less vice observable among the population engaged in this manufactory than amongst the
surrounding population of the labouring class. The comparative circumstances of that
population were such as, when examined, would establish the conclusion that it must be
so.